There is, we contend, considerably more complexity in the differentiated field and communicative structures delivering television news today than has so far has been acknowledged or explored. These complexities have direct bearing on debates about ‘democracy’, whether approached through the conceptual prisms of critical rationalism or cultural populism. This article reports on recent research which secures added empirical purchase on Australian TV journalism, and does so by analytically identifying, systematically mapping and pursuing into the production domain the repertoire of communicative frames that characterise Australian TV news. We elaborate a new conceptual framework for the study of ‘communicative frames’ and examine how these are deployed differentially within and across the daily news programmes delivered by the ABC, SBS, and Channels Seven, Nine and Ten. These communicative structures, we argue, prove consequential for the public elaboration and engagement of contentious issues and contending identities. They need to be taken seriously in debates about media democracy.
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